In many kinds of equipment, ducting, piping, castings, and other parts are joined together in gasketed joints in order to form gas, liquid, electrical, chemical, or sound isolation seals at the joints. The common method of making gasketed joints involves separately forming a gasket, positioning it, usually by hand, on the flange or other junction surface of one or more of the parts, attaching the gasket to one or the other of the parts by adhesive or mechanical fasteners and then bolting or otherwise fastening the two parts forming the joint together. These procedures are labor intensive and require multiple handling of parts, together with multiple needs for quality and operability inspections. Typically handling and inspections are required through three tiers of manufacturing: during production of the materials, forming of the parts, and fabrication of the assembly structure.
There is a need to be able to form or mold a gasket in place on one (or more) of the parts that is to be connected at the gasketed joint and also to form it more or less integrally with one of the parts if desired. The present invention meets that need, both for foamed gaskets and for solid or hard gaskets. It is particularly useful in the construction of molded in place gaskets for polypropylene parts.